Trail Opening & Dedication of the Philip E Young Memorial Preserve and the Walbridge Woodlands Preserve

Lyme Town & Land Trust To Dedicate & Open Trails

On Two New Forest Preserves Sunday Afternoon

The Lyme Land Conservation Trust and the Town of Lyme have scheduled a unique joint opening ceremony on Sunday Nov. 18 of their two new preserves on Gungy Road.

The new preserves are the Philip E. Young Memorial Preserve, given to the Town in May by Ruth Maynard Young of Lyme, and the Land Trust’s adjacent Walbridge Woodlands Preserve, purchased last summer through the generosity of the Sargent family.

The Lyme selectmen and the Land Trust board are emphasizing that the joint opening of the two preserves is a public event, and they are inviting town residents, guests and out-of-towners to come celebrate and explore Lyme’s newest preserved forestlands.

The opening, scheduled for 2 PM, will include a guided walking tour of new trails on the two preserves developed in recent months.

Following the passing of her son Philip in 2009, Ruth Young and her family made a decision that will ensure his legacy is memorialized forever. They gave the town 82 acres between Gungy and Beaver Brook roads to be named for Philip and permanently preserved as open space for passive recreation. They gave the town another two acres to be set aside for Lyme’s affordable housing program.

“The Board of Selectmen extends its thanks on behalf of the town to Ruth, Cathleen and Patrick for their vision and selfless commitment to our collective mission to preserve Lyme’s heritage and rural character for generations to come,” said First Selectman Ralph Eno.

“This incredibly generous gesture, when coupled with the Lyme Land Conservation Trust’s recent acquisition of an adjacent 46 acre parcel, creates an impressive greenway running from the Beebe Preserve on the south side of Beaver Brook Road through Hartman Park to the Salem town line,” said Eno.

In late June the Land Trust purchased 46 acres between the Young property and the Town’s Hartman Park. The funds to purchase the property were provided by the family of the late David Sargent of Essex, and at the request of the Sargents, the new preserve is named Walbridge Woodlands.

The Town and the Land Trust have worked together to plan and develop a network of connecting trails on the two new preserves and on Hartman Park.

The new trails on the Young and Walbridge Preserves will add more than two miles to the network of more than 10 miles of trails in Hartman Park, creating a trail system that reaches all the way from the Salem town line in Hartman on the north, through Walbridge and down into the Young Preserve almost to Beaver Brook Road.

The trail systems in all three preserves are connected by an extension of Hartman’s Yellow Trail, which now runs south out of Hartman and through Walbridge to connect to the northern end of the new trail system in the Young Preserve..

The opening ceremony will be at 2 PM at the Gungy Road trailhead to the Red Trail in the Young Preserve, about a quarter mile up Gungy from Beaver Brook Road. Please do not bring pets.

After the dedication of the Young Preserve by the Lyme selectmen, former Lyme Land Trust presidents Anthony Irving and Ralph Lewis will lead a walking tour of the new trails on both new preserves.

They will discuss the preserves’ flora, fauna, geology, and history.